No ban goes the gavel

Three-judge bench in US appeals court unanimously votes against President Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim-majority countries; Trump vows to challenge it again

Donald Trump

San Francisco: A US appeals court yesterday refused to reinstate Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban on nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, in a major political setback to the President, who vowed to legally challenge the unanimous ruling, saying “see you in court”.

“We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay,” the judges said in the unanimous order.

“The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States,” the three-judge bench of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals here said, making it clear that they would not block a ruling by a Seattle court that halted Trump’s executive order.

Trump described the ruling as a ‘political decision’. “It’s a political decision, and we’re going to see them in court. This is just a decision that came down, but we’re going to win the case,” Trump said.

Hillary trolls Trump over rulingHillary Clinton trolled US President Donald Trump on the travel ban ruling. Her tweet simply read, “3-0”, a reference to the unanimous decision by the three-judge panel.

Trump phones Iraqi PM on travel banUS President Donald Trump phoned Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi. “The Prime Minister stressed the importance of a review of the decision on the right of Iraqis to travel to the US and lift Iraq from the list of countries mentioned in the executive order,” read a statement from Al-Abadi's office. The White House did not provide a readout of the phone call.

In Iran, thousands chant ‘Death to USA’On the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, hundreds of thousands of Iranians rallied on Friday to reject Trump’s warning that he had put the country “on notice”. Marchers carried ‘Death to America’ banners and effigies of Trump.